Bush's Approval Rating Falls to New Low  —  WASHINGTON - More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

Transfering U.S. operations to a U.S. company  —  MARGARET WARNER So, Simon Romero, let me just — for our viewers, I will re-read the operative sentence, because there has been a lot of debate about what it means.  —  The — Senator Warner said, D.P. World will transfer fully the U.S. operations to a United States entity.

$25,000 to Lobby Group Is Tied to Access to Bush  —  WASHINGTON, March 9 — The chief of an Indian tribe represented by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff was admitted to a meeting with President Bush in 2001 days after the tribe paid a prominent conservative lobbying group $25,000 at Mr. Abramoff's direction …

They Mean It  —  It's pretty clear that the assault on women's reproductive rights is in full swing.  I suspect that many Republicans know that their legislative majority days may be numbered and they are trying to deliver for their constituents before they lose their perch.  —  This one's a twofer.

Pakistan arrests 1,000 kite-flyers under terror laws  —  LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistan has detained 1,000 people for flying kites and warned they could be tried as terrorists after 10 people were killed in a week by strings coated with glass or made from metal.

Unexpected Rise in Jobless Claims  —  WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week, to 303,000, the highest level this year, a government report showed on Thursday.  —  The increase of 8,000 took the number …

North American opinion Research Inc. replies to Vcrisis  —  Julio Makarem and Ricardo Valbuena have published today a two page communiqué in Venezuela's most read newspaper Ultimas Noticias (see below).  In it they accuse me, among other things, of being part, together with Gustavo Coronel …

The New Protectionists  —  How to create a real security crisis.  —  Dubai Ports World finally threw in the kaffiyah on its American operations yesterday, agreeing to sell them "to a U.S. entity."  We hope that entity turns out to be Halliburton, if only for the torment that would cause certain eminences on Capitol Hill.

Exporting Censorship  —  AMERICAN technology firms are taking heat from the public and Congress for helping China's government police the Internet.  But this controversy extends well beyond China and the so-called Internet Gang of Four: Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Microsoft.